The Honourable Christopher Fancot, on leave from the diplomatic service in the summer of 1817, is startled to find his entrancing but incorrigibly extravagant mother on the brink of financial and social ruin - and more than alarmed to find that his twin, Evelyn, has disappeared without trace.

The unfortunate Kit Fancot is forced into an outrageous masquerade by the tangled affairs of his wayward family - his rigid uncle. Lord Brumby, the surprisingly wily Sir Bonamy Ripple, the formidable old Lady Stavely and Evelyn’s betrothed, Cressy - but in the face of Evelyn’s continues absence. Kit’s ingenuity is stretched to the limit.